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Attack of the Killer Tomato Snobs

At the beginning of this winter, the United States faced a
shortage of tomatoes. Many restaurants would put tomatoes on
sandwiches or burgers only if you specifically asked for them.

The hurricanes in Florida last year were a big reason why. The
short supply of tomatoes meant prices were higher, too, which in
turn meant less demand.

Or so Florida tomato growers claimed. But another reason
tomatoes are less sought after lately could be that they taste like
construction paper. They may be round, red, and firm to the touch,
but winter tomatoes are picked while they’re still green, then
doused with chemicals throughout the shipping process as they make
their way to the grocer. This leaves them red, but a bit short on
taste.

Enter the UglyRipe, a lumpen, misshapen, odd duck of a tomato
grown near Naples, Florida, by the Procacci brothers. The typical
UglyRipe resembles what tomato people call a “cat’s face.” It has
crevices, ridges and scars. It’s rarely round, and is difficult to
slice for sandwiches. It’s also delicious.

UglyRipes are picked pink and shipped in specialized packing to
ensure freshness. That makes them more expensive, yet consumers had
been plucking them off the shelves by the armful because of their
sweet taste and juicy, chin-dripping goodness. Customers, it seems,
value taste in tomatoes far more than they value shape, color, and
uniformity.

Unfortunately, the Florida Tomato Committee holds the opposite
view. Set up under a 1937 law that allows farmers to form marketing
groups that exert tight control over what can be sold, agricultural
marketing committees like the Florida Tomato Committee have the
power not only to dictate what comes to market, they can also force
farmers to contribute resources to marketing campaigns.

The Supreme Court will rule this spring whether such tactics are
legal in a case brought by dairy farmers who were forced to help
pay for the “Got Milk?” campaign.

But back to tomatoes. The Florida Tomato Committee ruled in
early January that Procacci’s UglyRipes are simply too ugly to be
sold as a Florida tomato. The decision will cost Procacci about $3
million, and will rob tomato lovers across the country of a
great-tasting fruit (yes, the tomato is a fruit).

Never mind customer tastes, or taste in general. The FTC’s only
concern is that a tomato be red, round, and indistinguishable from
the tomatoes around it. “[The ruling] has nothing to do with
taste,” committee compliance officer Skip Jonas told the New
York Times. “Taste is subjective,” he explained.

Reggie Brown, the committee’s manager, told USA Today,
“If you allowed the producers of UglyRipe to ship any quality of
tomato, then how could you justify not allowing any quality tomato
into the market place?”

The answer, of course, is that the free market would decide what
is and isn’t a worthy tomato, instead of a select group of tomato
snobs who represent those guilty of what passes for a Beefsteak
these days.

These marketing committees are anachronistic — assuming they
were ever a very good idea in the first place. In fact, the
UglyRipe case has revealed what these committees really are -
government-sanctioned protectionist rackets designed to stifle
innovation, protect industry dinosaurs, and keep a better product
from ever becoming competitive.

Given that the UglyRipe is a more expensive, visually
unappealing tomato, it is difficult to see how merely allowing it
into the grocery store presents an “undue marketing advantage.”
Unless, of course, current Florida tomatoes are so awful that
customers would actually prefer an uglier, more expensive, but
tastier option. That seems to be what’s happening.

Should the Procaccis’ case get as far, this is one example of
where the Supreme Court could justifiably invoke the Interstate
Commerce Clause - something it has been far too ready to invoke
over the years when it isn’t justified, but far too reticent to
invoke when it is.

The framers included the ICC to prevent one state from enacting
laws that restrict commerce and competition in other states. It was
intended to allow Congress to set up what you might call a “free
trade zone” between the states. The Florida Tomato Committee’s
anti-UglyRipe ruling amounts to classic protectionism, protecting
Florida’s old-guard tomato growers from competition, at the expense
of consumers.

The ruling is ripe to be struck down by Congress, an action that
should be upheld by the Supreme Court.